Family Ties
by ClockworkAssassin
Summary: [AC Syndicate] Fluffy oneshot. Jacob comes out to Evie.


_A/N: I always wished that the designers of Assassin's Creed Syndicate had included a coming-out scene for Jacob in the game, or for that matter officially acknowledged his sexuality at all. Much the same way they dodged around potential sexism against Evie, racism against Henry, and a number of other social issues that could have really been deeply explored in the game, they dodged around Jacob's implied relationship and awakening with Maxwell Roth for ages until finally confirming him as bisexual in a Tumblr post, of all things. Very Victorian of them to carefully avoid it for so long, I thought. So, since Ubisoft is still hesitant to publicly embrace their first confirmed LGBT main character, I decided to pick up the slack and write the damn thing myself. I hope you enjoy._

"Evie?"

Evie sighed, hearing the hesitation in her brother's voice; that never meant anything good. It meant he had gotten himself into trouble again – whether that involved dismantling the entire British economy in one fell swoop, derailing a train into another train, or any of the other madcap capers he'd gotten up to since they'd arrived in London. She was beginning to seriously regret setting him loose on the city, because it obviously wasn't prepared for the sheer reckless chaos that her brother brought with him everywhere he went, and she was starting to get very tired of cleaning up all his messes.

She set down her book and turned to watch Jacob slink into the train hideout. But to her surprise, instead of looking sheepish, smirking or gleefully abashed, he looked tense and nervous, avoiding her gaze and seeming very interested in the floorboards; it was the first time in a long time she'd seen him not being his usual cocky, annoyingly overconfident self, and it worried her. What could have happened to throw him so thoroughly off his roguish game? "I have something to tell you," he said, wringing his hat nervously in his hands. "Something important."

"What did you do this time?" she asked, half expecting to hear about all the ways his newest mission had gone awry. And of course, who would he turn to when it came to repairing the damage? Why, none other than his dearest sister. "Please tell me you didn't demolish the entire transportation system while I was out for lunch."

"It's not that. It's… well, it's…" Jacob seemed at a loss for words for a moment, which only made Evie even more concerned. It was rare to see her brother completely off his guard like this, unable to even come up with a clever quip or snarky comment for the situation. "There's something I've been meaning to talk to you about for a while," he said at length.

"…Okay…" Now Evie was genuinely worried. He must have done something really terrible this time if he was acting like this. What horrifying reports could she expect to hear from the Rooks later? "What is it?"

"Sit down." He shifted anxiously. "I need you to sit down."

Evie sat, now wondering if she was about to hear that he had murdered Henry or gotten drunk and pissed on an orphanage. "Go on."

Jacob took a long breath, then looked fiercely at her, obviously gathering his courage. "You remember Maxwell Roth?"

"Of course I remember. How could I forget?" The charismatic leader of the Blighter gang had almost killed hundreds of people at the Alhambra, and he had been an accessory for the Templars for years, helping them bring the people of London a lovely parade of near-constant violence, poverty and suffering. And if Jacob hadn't finally put an end to his mad reign of terror, he might have caused much more. "What about him?"

"He –" Jacob trailed off uncertainly, still wringing his hat in his hands. Evie looked on in complete bewilderment; she had never seen him this uncomfortable before. "I wasn't completely honest with you about him."

"Oh?" Evie frowned. "You told me plenty about Roth. You told me he was the leader of the Blighters, and he was tired of being Starrick's lapdog. He helped you cripple Templar strongholds all over the city, but his methods became too violent and unpredictable, and you had to kill him when he started threatening innocents. Did I miss something?"

"I left some things out." Jacob closed his eyes tightly, as though summoning some inner courage. "Evie, when I first met Roth, I didn't understand why I wanted to help him. There was no reason why I should have trusted him as much as I did."

"I just assumed you were being reckless, as usual." Evie meant it as a light jab, but Jacob looked at her with something like pleading in his eyes.

"Evie, I need you to listen to me."

"Sorry, sorry. Go on." Evie subsided into silence, watching as Jacob struggled with himself; it seemed as though he was fighting some immense internal batle. Finally he went on, haltingly.

"When I first started working with him, I convinced myself that it was just business. He was helping me, and I was helping him. Nothing more to it."

"Was it?" Evie asked.

Jacob sounded like he wanted to sink into the floorboards and disappear when he said, "No." Then, seeing Evie raise an eyebrow, he buried his face in his hands. "Oh, bollocks, I'm saying it all wrong. I tried to talk myself through this in the mirror and it never happened right –"

"Jacob, what are you trying to tell me?" Evie felt like there was something she was missing here, but she had no idea what it was. What had he meant by, _it wasn't just business?_ The way he was saying it, it almost sounded like he was telling her –

Oh.

 _Oh._

 _OH!_

She laughed out loud, and Jacob's head snapped up; he looked at her with something like horror. "Oh no," he said. "No, why are you laughing? Don't laugh."

She didn't know why she was laughing. Maybe it was because she had seen the way her brother smiled at handsome men on the street, then hastily caught himself and pretended to have been studying the cobblestones; maybe it was because she remembered a lovely young boy they had trained with in Crawley, one with a perfect smile and emerald eyes, whom Jacob seemed very fond of. Maybe she was laughing in collective realization that there was something very obvious about her brother that she had been completely missing for twenty-two years. Whatever it was, she couldn't stop giggling, and Jacob started to turn red.

"You're mocking me," he said, with just a hint of fear in his voice. "You think I'm joking, don't you?"

"I thought you were about to tell me you murdered someone!" Evie tried to stifle her mirth, but it kept slipping out anyway, and Jacob's terrified expression only made her laugh harder; obviously he thought she was seconds away from throwing him out the window of the train and tossing his top hat out after him. "You miserable sod, I thought I was going to have to bail you out of _jail!"_

"I don't –" Now he looked hopelessly confused. "Evie, what are you saying?"

"Jacob, just tell me." She looked at her brother, unable to hide her amusement – and, for that matter, relief – any longer. "Tell me what you're going to tell me. I already know."

He put his face in his hands and, in between his fingers, said weakly, "Evie, I like men."

"Well, it's about time," Evie said, and then both of them were laughing.

When it died down, Jacob ventured, "Do you hate me?"

"No more than usual." Evie rose, offering him a hug, knowing she would love him no matter what. He embraced her tightly, and they shared a fond moment. "I love you just the way you are, you miserable wreck. Just please fall in love with someone a little less murderous next time."

"I can almost guarantee it." And he was finally back to being Jacob Frye when he let go of her, grinning with his usual cheery cockiness. "On a related note, I've been meaning to pop over and see how Bell is doing."

"Oh, shut it." Evie whacked his shoulder. "The last thing that man needs in his life is a clingy Assassin with daddy issues."

"Now, dear sister, that's not the way you talk to your beloved brother, is it?" Jacob rubbed his shoulder, mock-wounded. "After all, I _did_ save your life from Starrick a few weeks ago."

"Only because you made me wear that infernal dress contraption and dance with him like a common wench," Evie retorted, picking up her book again and flipping to where she'd left off.

Jacob sighed fondly. "I missed us."

"Well, I didn't. Now don't you have a tavern to be ruining somewhere?"

"As a matter of fact, I do." Jacob kissed her softly on the forehead, a rare moment of letting his walls down – then again, he'd been doing a lot of that today already. "Love you, sis."

"I hate you more, brother dearest." But she watched him go with a wry smile. "Don't get into any trouble. And no picking up any handsome lads off the street, you hear me? And don't you _dare_ go flirting with Bell!"

He winked, already halfway out the door. "Count on it."


End file.
